David Gregory’s flight to nowhere

David Gregory wasn’t supposed to host “Meet the Press” on Sunday. He was on a planned vacation in Nantucket, where, the night before, he had hosted a special presentation of the Boston Pops, sponsored by Coastal Living and Real Simple.

Midway through the week, however, Gregory changed his mind. His fate at “Meet the Press” had been the subject of numerous press reports. Page Six and others had declared him dead in the water come November. Several NBC personalities were already vying to replace him. Gregory was chartered back to Washington for Sunday’s program, having concluded, one NBC source said, that being off was “a dumb move” — that would have only further fueled speculation that the host was on his way out.

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For well over a year now, NBC News executives have been trying to come up with a solution to what sources there referred to as “the David Gregory problem.” The host had driven NBC’s once-dominant Sunday show to the bottom of the ratings race. He was widely disliked within the organization and his ambition and vanity rubbed important colleagues at NBC the wrong way. Perhaps most importantly, he didn’t seem all that engaged with politics and policy, the bread and butter of Sunday public affairs programming.

As Gregory endures more and more negative press, NBC News is being criticized for publicly humiliating their host and doing little to tamp down the rumor mill in what many see as a tortuously long and bloody dethroning.

“We all understand we don’t have a right to these jobs,” Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, said over the weekend. “On the other hand we do have a right to be treated properly and not shabbily. If you’re going to get rid of David Gregory… then they ought to just do it. This twisting in the wind is unseemly.”

“NBC is throwing David Gregory ‘under the bus’ and it is drip, drip, drip, drip!” wrote Greta Van Susteren, the Fox News prime time host. “It is so slow, so painful and wicked.”

The day after Gregory returned to Washington, POLITICO reported that the embattled host would be replaced within the year, likely by Chuck Todd, the network’s chief White House correspondent and political director. There were caveats — sources cautioned that nothing is definite or decided — but, as far as everyone was concerned, Gregory was out and Todd was in. “Congrats @chucktodd, new @meetthepress host,” C-SPAN tweeted.

Gregory declined to comment: “[I’m] spending some time with my family and staying above the fray,” he told POLITICO in an email. Michael Glantz, his representative, said, “Neither David or I have ever been made aware that Chuck Todd will be replacing him.”

But the end was closing in on David Gregory; it had been for months. Under Gregory, “Meet the Press” relinquished its 15-year claim as the No. 1 Sunday public affairs program. In the fourth quarter of 2013, the show finished third in the ratings behind CBS’s “Face The Nation” and ABC’s “This Week” for the first time since 1992. It now frequently finishes third in both total viewership and the demo on a weekly basis. All the Sunday shows have seen their influence wane in recent years, but critics have found a lack of passion and vitality particularly notable with “Meet.”

Meanwhile, Gregory has been subject to an onslaught of criticism and negative press reports. The nadir came in April, when The Washington Post reported that NBC News had hired a “psychological consultant” to interview Gregory’s friends and family to gain greater insight into the host’s personality. (NBC News called the report “ludicrous,” and Gregory said it was “utter fiction.”) Three months later, Page Six reported that Gregory would be out after the November midterms.

NBC News executives initially seemed to back Gregory: In an internal memo, NBC News President Deborah Turness assured staff that the network was “proud to have David in the important anchor chair of ‘Meet the Press,’” and that he would remain at the show’s helm. NBC News Senior Vice President Alex Wallace had said in March that “David is our guy, is going to be our guy, and we are really happy with him.”

Meanwhile, Turness took “Meet the Press” under her wing. She instituted a number of production and formatting changes that she hoped would make the show more appealing. Segments would be shorter, and wouldn’t always focus on politics or policy. She took some editorial ownership as well, participating in weekly conference calls where she offered booking suggestions. Her input often reflected her British tabloid sensibility. (She formerly served as editor of ITV News.) Often, Turness would ask for the perspective of nonpolitical voices on key political debates.